Surprise!

Today Corel released a brand-new version of Painter, and it's called, not " Painter X4", not "Painter 14" but Painter 2015. Wow!

This latest version of Painter is first and foremost stable. I mean "STABLE". It's wonderful! You can now work for hours without fear of a crash. I for one, am thrilled.
So, what else is new?
1. Mac users finally get full 64 bit support! This means faster speed for memory-intensive operations. Also you will experience improvements to brush accuracy and performance.
2. Real-time preview of Effects ... and for most Effects, a new, larger preview window...YaY!

3. Support of RTS (Real-Time Stylus) and Windows Tablet PCs.
4. Custom user Interface Palette arrangements/layouts ship with the program, and Painter 2015 includes the ability to quickly switch between them.

5. Enhanced Brush Tracking

6. New media added to the libraries, paper textures, nozzles, images and more.
7. A brand-new Android Painter app. At last, Android users have their day in the sun! ☺

8. ... and finally, last but certainly not least ... New brushes! To quote from Corel "These new physics-inspired brushes produce rich, chaotic strokes by emitting particles from a central point that create lines and patterns as they move across the canvas."
In plain English ... these brushes are nothing short of amazing. It's literally like painting with light.

So, go check it out. I bet you'll like it. ☺...and after you look, if you are new to Painter, and decide you want to learn how to use the program, I provide lessons in printable, PDF format at the Digital Art Academy. The list of Intro classes I teach is on this page, the Painter 2015 class is at the top. Check out the Syllabus, and then you can register. Hope to see you soon. ☺

For those who have been waiting, and who have asked me about it, the Introduction to Painter X3 Part 3 class has finally arrived and is now open for enrollment. It's arrival coincides with the new web portal for DAA, and I hope you will be pleased with both.

This class covers a great deal of material regarding the many ways you can customize Painter X3 to turn it into your own personal Digital Art supply closet and much more. ☺

For those of you who are interested in what goes on "under the hood" of the Painter Brush Engine, an excellent tutorial series by Jason Maranto has been made available at the VTC web site. I was privileged to be able to view advance showings of the first 18 videos and believe me, this is an excellent set of tutorials. By the time you're through watching all the videos you will be able to alter and/or create custom brushes to your heart's content. Jason has a clear and concise way of explaining the inner workings of the Painter Brushes, and even those who are very experienced with Painter will find new information in this series.

In case you have a slower Internet connection as I do, wait a few weeks at which time VTC will be releasing the course on USB (by which I'm guessing you will be able to buy a small flash drive with the lessons pre-loaded) Meanwhile, go over to the VTC site and take advantage of the eighteen free lessons which they are offering.